Karon Anderson was a good man. He demonstrated on many occasions that he had a good heart, and that he was the rare person who cared for and watched out for strangers. Although he died at a young age, he died as a hero and should be remembered as such. It is horrifically sad that his life was taken as he was doing his best to "do the right thing," something rarely done by any of our so-called leaders. The loss is certainly a great loss for his family and all who knew him, and we must include Detroit and society as a whole who has also suffered this loss.

/God Bless Karon Anderson for putting his life on the line in order to "do the right thing" for a stranger//the world certainly needs more people who look out for and stand up for others///although I never knew this man, I am deeply saddened by this unnecessary tragedy

Agreed, Anderson tried to defuse the situation and then become the victim. Knight suffered from mental illness and his 3rd appointed lawyer should consider a career shoveling fark in the local sewage plant.

Knight's attorney said his client was stabbed in the leg during the incident and was defending himself.

Well, what can the attorney do. Your license requires you to defend your client to the best of your ability, and this is what he's left with. Sadly, he's not allowed to say: "Your Honor, my client is bugf*ck insane, he needs help and the looney bin is the best thing for him, really. Of course, HE doesn't think so, but I do, so that's what I'm going to argue." Alas, that's not what an "adequate defense" consists of these days, so the public defender has to scrape around for anything that might work.

Why the hell ISN'T he allowed to say that? If crazy guy disagrees, he can damn well find somebody else willing to represent him.

Dude is 55, violently nutso, and has now taken the life of somebody who was trying to rebuild his own. Just give him some distracting ice cream and put him down gently like you would a rabid dog. It's not his "fault" he's crazy, but I don't particularly feel like paying for his room and board for the rest of his useless life.

Agreed, Anderson tried to defuse the situation and then become the victim. Knight suffered from mental illness and his 3rd appointed lawyer should consider a career shoveling fark in the local sewage plant.

Knight's attorney said his client was stabbed in the leg during the incident and was defending himself.

Well, what can the attorney do. Your license requires you to defend your client to the best of your ability, and this is what he's left with. Sadly, he's not allowed to say: "Your Honor, my client is bugf*ck insane, he needs help and the looney bin is the best thing for him, really. Of course, HE doesn't think so, but I do, so that's what I'm going to argue." Alas, that's not what an "adequate defense" consists of these days, so the public defender has to scrape around for anything that might work.

Agreed, Anderson tried to defuse the situation and then become the victim. Knight suffered from mental illness and his 3rd appointed lawyer should consider a career shoveling fark in the local sewage plant.

Knight's attorney said his client was stabbed in the leg during the incident and was defending himself.

And where do you think the lawyer got that story? Knight's a little off; it wouldn't surprise me if he stabbed himself. I don't think the lawyer would go with that story if there was no wound.

As for "hero," I'll remind everyone again: a hero is just the protagonist in a morality tale, not necessarily a great person. Anderson is, indeed, the hero of this tale. The moral is, "Defend the helpless."

Agreed, Anderson tried to defuse the situation and then become the victim. Knight suffered from mental illness and his 3rd appointed lawyer should consider a career shoveling fark in the local sewage plant.

Knight's attorney said his client was stabbed in the leg during the incident and was defending himself.

Tozmo:I live in the suburbs here (adjacent suburbs, not the ones with large separation from the city)

Who knows what would have happened anyway, but why the hell were two white hipsters on a Detroit city bus? Public transportation here is not like other cities.

If you are the type of person who reads Fark, then you do not belong on a Detroit bus. If you are a hipster, you do not get on a Detroit bus even in an ironic "I can ride these buses" way. You will end up dead or penniless.

How is this the fault of the white hipsters and not the scum bags who make Detroit uninhabitable? This is farking stupid. If you're going to turn your city into such a shiat hole that people of certain races or backgrounds can't ride the bus, your city should be burned to the farking ground. Stop making excuses.

LiteWerk:Karon Anderson was a good man. He demonstrated on many occasions that he had a good heart, and that he was the rare person who cared for and watched out for strangers. Although he died at a young age, he died as a hero and should be remembered as such. It is horrifically sad that his life was taken as he was doing his best to "do the right thing," something rarely done by any of our so-called leaders. The loss is certainly a great loss for his family and all who knew him, and we must include Detroit and society as a whole who has also suffered this loss.

/God Bless Karon Anderson for putting his life on the line in order to "do the right thing" for a stranger//the world certainly needs more people who look out for and stand up for others///although I never knew this man, I am deeply saddened by this unnecessary tragedy

Well said. RIP, Mr. Anderson. Your last actions are the ones by which the world will remember you, and rightly so.

Lee Jackson Beauregard:So where are the trolls from the stop-and-frisk thread? OK, I favorited!ed one of them, but still there were others.

Give it up, dude. Farkkk.com's "hate speech" policy is a joke. This is a place specifically provided so pasty-faced little mommy-basement boys can vent the bigotry in safety that would get their soft, pink little asses kicked in real life - and the mods here support it. Don't like bigotry and hate speech? Stay away from Free Republic, Stormfront, and Farkkk.com.

Ky is for some reason no one here can figure out....including the lgbt community......becoming an lgbt community. Im an urban Libertarian-conservative survivalist kinda guy and roughly half the people I socialize with are either gay or strongly gay rights aware despite being libertarians and fiscal conservatives. We have social clubs of people who grow their own food downtown and get together on weekends to cook gourmet meals and drink wine. It would be accurate to call that a high lgbt quotient activity around here. I guess there are people who are PO'd about it, but im running into fewer of them anymore. Even my friends who are homeschooling baptists just kind of shake their heads in a rueful sort of way and quietly disapprove of all the gayness.

Its getting tough for the old time gay activists though, they get angry about something and proclaim their sexuality and no one cares. Its suddenly tacky to be to upset about it all. Its almost (drumroll) like spending time around different people means you are less sensitive to the differences (gasp)

Maybe its time for hollywood and big media to loosen up and let some conservatives and libertarians in eh? Woah nelly......cant have that, you know how stupid and inbred conservatives are......

halB:BarkingUnicorn: One of the things a defense lawyer cannot do is suborn perjury. If a client says, "I did it, but I'm gonna testify that I didn't," the lawyer must either persuade the client not to testify or withdraw from the case.

Ya, that would be subsection (d), which I referenced. It's also not a problem if the client is very carefully questioned about the details of the case. It's cute that you're trying to play the "I know stuff about the law because I watch Law & Order." Please continue to contribute in these amazing ways to these discussions.

When I read the part about how Anderson liked to read his poetry aloud on the bus, and some cheered and others were angry, I thought, "That is one interesting gadfly of a man. He sounded quite unconventional, and he probably would have made for one hell of a party guest."

Then I read about how he'd pay people to give up their bus seats for a lady. Sorry folks, I lost it right there.

over_and_done:Gyrfalcon: And, as I said and will keep saying: That's not the lawyer's decision to make. Unless you're okay with people just being locked up in mental hospitals against their will without having any say in the matter. Are you? Because that's what you're demanding here. You're asking someone else to say this guy is too crazy to live, based on a three-paragraph news article, and if that's fine by you, then understand it's a short step till anyone can be found too crazy to live based on equally flimsy evidence.

No, I'm asking someone else to say this guy is too crazy to live, based on the fact that he killed someone in front of witnesses.

Yes, I know the lawyer isn't allowed to do that. I'm merely saddened that a lawyer will defend someone he knows to be guilty rather than stepping down or asking for a mental evaluation.

Why are you saddened that a lawyer would MAKE SURE the government carries its burden and proves the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt? Why are you sad that a lawyer would make sure the constitution and laws of this country are followed?

Agreed, Anderson tried to defuse the situation and then become the victim. Knight suffered from mental illness and his 3rd appointed lawyer should consider a career shoveling fark in the local sewage plant.

Knight's attorney said his client was stabbed in the leg during the incident and was defending himself.

Well, what can the attorney do. Your license requires you to defend your client to the best of your ability, and this is what he's left with. Sadly, he's not allowed to say: "Your Honor, my client is bugf*ck insane, he needs help and the looney bin is the best thing for him, really. Of course, HE doesn't think so, but I do, so that's what I'm going to argue." Alas, that's not what an "adequate defense" consists of these days, so the public defender has to scrape around for anything that might work.

Why the hell ISN'T he allowed to say that? If crazy guy disagrees, he can damn well find somebody else willing to represent him.

Dude is 55, violently nutso, and has now taken the life of somebody who was trying to rebuild his own. Just give him some distracting ice cream and put him down gently like you would a rabid dog. It's not his "fault" he's crazy, but I don't particularly feel like paying for his room and board for the rest of his useless life.

The single most requested topic by Ethics Scoreboard readers is in the area of criminal defense lawyer ethics: how can it be right for an attorney to defend in court an individual that he or she knows is guilty?

I'm not arguing "guilty," I'm arguing "crazy". Maybe that's not a distinction that we're allowed to make, I dunno. I think the lawyer could help this psycho fark more by getting him put away in the looney bin instead of arguing that he's normal.

And, as I said and will keep saying: That's not the lawyer's decision to make. Unless you're okay with people just being locked up in mental hospitals against their will without having any say in the matter. Are you? Because that's what you're demanding here. You're asking someone else to say this guy is too crazy to live, based on a three-paragraph news article, and if that's fine by you, then understand it's a short step till anyone can be found too crazy to live based on equally flimsy evidence.

asynchron:FTA: Knight's mental health issues were not a mystery to those who knew him.

WHY DID THIS MAN HAVE A FARKING KNIFE??!! A decent human being is now dead because of this!

Knight also wrote that he was praying for Anderson's family and had contemplated suicide.

Too bad he didn't do more than contemplate.

Yeah! We need to keep all weapons away from the mentally ill! Restrict them to soft objects and sponges! Nothing to eat but jello and pudding! Dress them in one-piece smocks and flip-flops! Make them ring bells and shout Unclean! Unclean!

LIke I said before, if there is one medical service that should be free, and with no hassle, it's for violence oriented mental health issues. Although I would guess the NRA would prefer arming bus and cab drivers with an MP5.

Sad story all around. The guy defending the couple lost his life. The assailant is mentally ill and homeless and probably should never have been outside a mental institution. Even still, I hope he gets convicted and sentenced to life or pleads insanity and gets sent to treatment for the rest of his life.

And riding the bus where I live is bad enough. I wouldn't want to be riding any bus in Detroit.